Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has warned that businesses are “abandoning” the North Sea while a decision is awaited from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer about the future of two oil fields.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Ms Badenoch raised last week’s court case blocking the Rosebank and Jackdaw projects.

Lord Ericht ruled in Edinburgh’s Court of Session that they had been granted unlawfully by the Tory government and that they must pass an environmental test.

The UK government will need to address downstream emissions as part of the consenting process. The developers – Equinor, Ithaca and Shell – will then need to reapply for consent from the government and the North Sea Transition Authority.

Overnight it emerged that the head of Equinor, which is developing Rosebank with Ithaca, has expressed confidence that it will go ahead despite the legal delay.

Ed Miliband, the UK’s energy secretary, has said Rosebank going ahead would be an act of “climate vandalism”. But reports suggest the Chancellor Rachel Reeves would like to see the developments given the green light, with her allies in government claiming it would not go against Labour’s manifesto pledge to issue no new exploration licences, but not cancel existing ones.

Energy minister Michael Shanks told the Commons “We’ll continue to support those licences that have already been issued. But our future doesn’t lie in more oil and gas. Our future lies in clean power and that’s what we’re moving at pace to deliver.” 

Demanding Rosebank and Jackdaw go ahead, Ms Badenoch insisted the Prime Minister must now “grant these licences, open these oil and gas fields, save British jobs and bring down bills”.

She added: “Shell has said a one-year delay to Rosebank will cost £350 million and the loss of 1,000 jobs, Equinor has said a two-year delay to Jackdaw will cost £800m.”

In his ruling, Lord Ericht stated “the public interest in authorities acting lawfully and the private interest of members of the public in climate change outweigh the private interest of the developers”

However, Ms Badenoch warned that “at a time of war in Europe, threatened energy security, increased competition from the US and elsewhere, we should be getting British oil and gas out of the ground.

“Does the Prime Minister have the guts to take on Labour donors and his energy secretary and approve the licence applications when they are re-submitted? Business is abandoning the North Sea because of his decisions.”

She also described Labour’s GB Energy proposal as “a vanity project that is not great, not British, and does not produce any energy. Its own chairman admitted it will take 20 years to create just 1,000 jobs.

“Meanwhile, 200,000 jobs are at stake in our oil and gas sector right now. Does he [Sir Keir] think that 1,000 jobs in 20 years’ time are worth more than the 200,000 jobs we have now?

“This Prime Minister isn’t just managing decline, he’s creating decline.

“He has the power to grant these licences, open these oil and gas fields, save British jobs and bring down bills. Why does he find it so hard to do the right thing?”